Serpula vermicularis reefs on very sheltered circalittoral muddy sand

SS.SBR.PoR.Ser

SS.SBR.PoR.Ser recorded () and expected () distribution in Britain and Ireland (see below)

Marine natural heritage importance

Listed under

EC Habitats DirectiveUK Biodiversity Action Plan

National importance

Rare

Habitat Directive feature (Annex 1)

ReefsLarge shallow inlets and bays

Biotope importance

The biotope supports a mobile fauna of fish, crabs, whelks and echinoderms, which use the reefs for feeding, refuge and egg-laying (Moore et al., 1998; Poloczanska et al., 2004).

Exploitation

Small scale collection of Serpula vermicularis by divers for commercial aquaria takes place in Loch Creran (Moore, 1996). It appears that this limited collection is sustainable but there are no estimates of the maximum sustainable rate of removal making predictions of the effects of increased collection difficult (Holt et al., 1998).

Although the Pecten maximus population is probably too low to attract scallop dredgers, reef areas often contain reasonable stocks of the queen scallop, Aequipecten opercularis, and there are occasional reports of shallow-water dredging in Loch Creran in Scotland (Moore et al., 1998b).

Additional information

Although 'reefs' are an Annex 1 feature, the EC Habitats Directive make no mention of 'biogenic reefs' (Holt et al., 1997). However, the possible citing of biogenic reefs as a specific reason for selecting SACs is under review and may be proposed in the future (Brown et al., 1997).